Leslie Jordan’s character on Will & Grace had a running joke, whenever he introduced his lover: “This is my business associate, Benji.” No one was fooled. Everyone knew exactly what that phrase was doing: softening, sanitizing, shielding a truth obvious to anyone paying attention.
Some two decades later, that same euphemism has become the go-to line for some of the most powerful people named in the Epstein files. And just as with Benji, under scrutiny, the cover story falls flat.
In the many years I spent in PR and media relations, I had the opportunity to sit in crisis rooms with executives and elected officials when the proverbial feces of negative news hit the air conditioning.
The room usually comprised a lawyer or two and a squad of PR people, all offering suggestions and testing out responses.
After much debate came a final draft statement, usually something that sounded harmless enough to survive the next news cycle.
You can be sure that all the business types mentioned in the Epstein files have gone, or are going through, this same tedious process. So far, their attempts have been an epic failure.
As a PR pro, I’m attuned to recognizable phrases in statements seeking to characterize relationships with Jeffrey Epstein: “business associate,” “professional,” “business relationship,” “business partnership.”
What’s striking is how consistently those phrases appear, and how consistently they unravel once documents, emails, flight logs, and sworn statements come into view.
Take Kathy Ruemmler, a top lawyer at Goldman Sachs, once White House counsel to President Barack Obama. Her explanation was textbook: Epstein was a professional contact, a “business referral source” encountered through legal work.
Then the paper trail emerged. Emails referring affectionately to “Uncle Jeffrey.” Lavish gifts thanked for, including a Hermès bag. Dozens of planned meetings after the financier’s 2008 conviction on Florida charges including child prostitution. Even a role as a backup executor in Epstein’s will.
Whatever this was, it bore little resemblance to an arm’s-length professional referral. It’s baffling that Ruemmler faces no consequences.
Then there’s Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates. His initial statements flatly denied any meaningful business or personal relationship. In October 2019, Gates said he only met Epstein to discuss philanthropy.
Later reporting showed multiple meetings after Epstein’s conviction, including visits to Epstein’s townhouse and flights on his plane. Gates was forced to acknowledge “a huge mistake.” Philanthropy, or “business”, it turned out, had been doing an awful lot of work in those original statements.
Stephen Tisch, co-owner of the New York Giants, initially described a brief association and a handful of emails. The newly released records tell a different story. Tisch had frequent interactions, including messages in which Epstein was asked to help connect Tisch with women, and which casually described a “shared interest friend.”
That’s not how people talk about someone they barely know, or did a bit of business with.
Real estate billionaire Andrew Farkas assured investors his relationship with Epstein was for business only. Oh boy! The documents showed him calling Epstein one of his “best friends.”
It was no secret that Epstein had an extensive, 20-year business and financial relationship with Les Wexner, the founder of Victoria’s Secret. Epstein worked for Wexner from the late 1980s to 2007. Wexner long framed it as a business arrangement, despite Epstein managing his fortunes, living in his mansion, and holding power of attorney.
Jes Staley, a former CEO of Barclays, said his relationship with Epstein was professional. Hundreds of messages revealed lots more, including a visit to Epstein’s island in 2015, facts serious enough to cost him his job.
Leon Black of Apollo described his Epstein meetings as “largely limited to tax strategy, estate planning and philanthropic advice.” Then it was revealed that tens of millions of dollars changed hands, amid frequent private dinners.
Richard Branson said his Epstein interactions were limited to group or business settings. Here we go again. Emails surfaced showing Branson invited Epstein to his own island, Necker, in the British Virgin Islands. and asked Epstein to bring his “harem” to a get-together. Now Branson calls Epstein “abhorrent.”
Oh, and how about Elon Musk, who once cast his refusal to visit Epstein’s island as a matter of principle, and blared on X that Trump was in the Epstein files. He’s now confronted by emails showing him enthusiastically asking Epstein, “What day/night will be the wildest party?”
Or what about another Trump lackey, loathsome Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. At first, Lutnick called Epstein “gross” and said any relationship ended decades ago. Then records placed Lutnick and his family on Epstein’s island in 2012.
Emailing with Epstein, or knowing him, does not confirm wrongdoing. But individually, each of these revelations is jarring. Taken together, they form a pattern hard to ignore.
“Business associate” wasn’t a description. It was a linguistic word play, deployed to obscure proximity, familiarity, and choice. It allowed all of these enormously rich and powerful people to speak just enough truth to avoid outright contradiction, until documentation emerged.
Leslie Jordan’s joke worked because the audience was in on it. The Epstein files reveal something much, much darker. The public was never supposed to be in on them. Now the euphemisms are failing, the rooms where the language was workshopped are being exposed, and the truth those phrases were meant to hide is stepping into the light.
Given what we know so far, anyone who still claims to have had a “business relationship” with Epstein better start workshopping a response based in reality.
- John Casey was most recently Senior Editor, The Advocate, and is a freelance opinion and feature story writer. Previously, he was a Capitol Hill press secretary, and spent 25 years in media and public relations in NYC. He is the co-author of LOVE: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality (Rizzoli, 2025), named by Oprah in her “Best 25 of 2025.”
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